Geoff, George HW is George W's dad. And he did place a moratorium on offshore drilling, though it was rather redundant. See, there were TWO federal bans on offshore drilling - executive (by the President) and legislative (by the Congress). The Congressional ban has to be renewed every year, and it has been renewed every year since it's inception in 1981. It was already well established in 1990 when Bush 41 instituted the executive ban.

Neither is permanent. As I said, the legislative ban has to be renewed every fiscal year, meaning it will expire Sept 30th if not renewed, and the executive ban can be lifted by the current President at any time. As a matter of fact, it was already lifted on July 14th of this year. So, only the legislative ban still stands.

The executive ban was put in place when oil was $25/barrel. Circumstances change, we need to change with them. The President already has, let's see what Congress will do...or, let's see if they will have the votes to override the inevitable VETO of their bill to renew the ban.